Page 47 of Messenger of Death
“How about a full body wax for this one and Khalid and I get a Brazilian and a pedicure?” I asked.
That was what it was called right? I hadn’t really looked into it. I thought the sweet song of Lucian throwing a tantrum would ease the sting of having all the hair ripped from my sack.
“This your first time?” she asked.
Yeah, I could tell by the look on her face she knew damned well Khalid, and I had never done this before. She probably didn’t know this was a plot to fuck with the Prince of Darkness, but yeah, you could just look at Khalid and see he didn’t particularly want to do this and I was changing my mind more than a kid at a candy shoppe.
“The things we do for love, right?”
“Well, we’re going to do your toes first because it’s been slow today and if we do the manzilian first, you might run out of here in terror and we’ve all got bills. Go to the change room and put the robes on.”
“What the fuck, Liam? You made it seem like you’ve done this before,” Khalid hissed.
Yeah, that was fair. Khalid kind of got roped into the ball-waxing fuckery by extension. But this was about male bonding and Khalid and I would have a lot of misery to bond over. And we could gossip about Lucian if he was into this.
I just shrugged.
“I usually shave, but it’s kind of a pain. I figure this lasts longer.”
“Well,Itrim so I don’t have Yeti pubes, either. Lucian waxes everything so I’m not sure why you booked full body waxes for all of us. Sage isn’t going to choke to death on our pubes.”
Lucian just rolled his eyes.
“It’s not bad at all, but no one is making either of you doanything.I’m getting waxed because Iwantto, but the two ofyou could just get a pedicure because that’s also nice and deal with your body hair how you usually do. No one is judging.”
“Fuck it. I’m getting a mani and a pedi,” Khalid said. “If you two want to wax, that’s on you.”
That was logical, and I wasn’t judging. They both gave me an out. Ilovedgetting my nails done. I knew Khalid was just going to go for some buff and shine but I loved pretty colors on my nails.
But I couldn’t let Lucian one up me. If he was getting waxed, so was I.
I walked out there thinking I was prepared. I was going to handle this better than Lucian. Then it came time to get waxed, and she ripped that first strip off. It was like she snatched a piece of my soul with my pubes. It was a different kind of pain than I’d ever experienced. If she’d wanted secrets, I’d have given her all of them.
And then when I thought I’d endured all of it and it was finally done, this lass asked me to lift my legs and started applying wax to my fuckingarsehole.No one told me a Brazilian involved ripping my arse hairs out. What kind of person invented this? Why was waterboarding a thing when you could dothisto a person? Then again, I was also doing this willingly andpayingfor it.
No one ever called me sane.
When we finally left to meet Sage, I was rather burny below the waist and felt slightly violated. Lucian was happy as a pig to be rid of all his body hair and Khalid had really nice hands and feet now.
Next time I decided to fuck with Lucian, I was going to have to make amuchbetter plan.
We all crowded into a ride share to town and dropped Liam, Khalid, and Lucian off on a quaint street with lots of businesses. Saffron and I continued to her grandmother’s place. It wasn’t that far.
“You don’t think we’re going to get back and have to bail Liam, Khalid, and Lucian out, right?”
“If they are just being a general menace instead of being violent, the constables will just excuse it when they find out who Liam is. If Liam got violent, they are going to have problemsbecause of who Lucian used to be. I don’t think anyone who has met Lucian would associate him with Vlad the Impaler or any of his previous reincarnations. That’s not exactly working in his favor.”
“I’m guessing part of who he used to be is why he wasn’t invited to this.”
“Nope. When Scorpia found out he was at Ouroboros Academy with me, she grilled me every day to make sure I wasn’t in danger. When she found out who he was bound to, she decided he was probably a force for good in this reincarnation. It really is because the elders of all races are super secretive with outsiders. If you were talking to a vampire elder, Lucian would be the only one invited. We’re here.”
Scorpia lived in a large, stone cottage and was surrounded by plants. I didn’t even have to ask to know these were plants from Fairy. A small, but formidable older woman met us at the door. Saffron said she was over three hundred years old, but she barely looked like she was in her fifties. Supernatural aging wasweird,and I was still getting used to it.
And she bowed her head in reverenceto mewhen I hadn’t earned a damned thing like she had. I was just the reincarnation of an ancient deity. I bowed my head right back because Saffron had told me enough that this woman deserved every bit of respect she was given.
“Come inside. I have tea and food.”
I could consume an entire pot of coffee and go back for more, but I could never seem to get into tea. Still, I wasn’trude,so I took it anyway and politely took a sip.
